Mexico City Metro Logo, 1969

Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, Lance Wyman, Arturo Quiñones and Francisco Gallardo's logo and visual identity for Mexico City Metro.

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With congested roads and highways the Mexico City of the mid-twentieth century was experiencing an increasing public transport issue. Drawing on the technical assistance of France, and employing a tyre and rail approach by 1969 a distinctive orange metro train made its inaugural trip from Zaragoza, kicking off daily the operations of the Mexico City Metro. Despite the speed at which this was implemented, and the technical feats achieved, it would be the signage system that would generate the most amount of both praise and division.

The visual identity and signage system of this new metro was the result of a collaborative effort, a cross-disciplinary team of architects, photographers and graphic designers. These included Arturo Quiñones and Francisco Gallardo led by Lance Wyman, who worked with ISTME (Mexican Society of Engineers, Ingenieros en Sistemas de Transporte Metropolitano) under the coordination of architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez. Wyman and Vázquez had previously worked together on the identity for the Mexico 1968 Summer Olympic Games four years earlier which had made a significant impression on the city.

The project was shaped by the educational conditions of the country. As of 1960, 38% of Mexicans over the age of five were illiterate and only 5.6% of Mexicans had completed primary school. At the time of opening in 1969, Mexico's illiteracy rate was still high, with one-third of the population unable to read or write. With this in mind, the design team set about developing a solution that prioritised the development of a graphic system, combining colour and familiar visual motifs in the form of pictograms.

It is important to note the effect that the Olympics and its design had had on the people of Mexico City, and the possibility of them being open to a radical approach to metro wayfinding.

The project began with the design of a basic symbol for the metro network. Wyman explored various track and ‘M’-based compositions. What was eventually arrived at, a simple ‘M’ for Metro, is unique in its ideation and distinct in its visual expression.

The symbol conveyed the three lines of the new network cutting through the centre of the city. The square was used because the ancient symbolic centre of Mexico City was arranged around the ‘Zocalo’, the city square or ancient meeting place. The rounded top right-hand corner enhanced the form of the ‘M’ and gave the lines the sense of being part of an integrated network.

The colour orange that ran through the counter space drew its inspiration from the metro trains. These were intended to be repainted once they were delivered by French company Alstom, however, it was felt that as orange was the colour of the then Department of the Federal District, it would be appropriate to leave these as is. Orange then became the colour of the network and was used across items such as tickets and commemorative stamps.

The shape of the logo was then used as the basis for other aspects of the system, such as a custom typeface, which would be used to label important information such as station names and directions. This mono-linear typeface was characterised by its all uppercase letterforms, right angles and curves, in keeping with the none-geographic and formalised structure of metro maps, made popular by Harry Beck’s 1939 map of the London Underground.

The logo also went on to give form to the containers of a pioneering visual system of markers, pictograms that could easily be associated with important places. These were often historical in nature, highlighting people, places, and events in Mexican history.

When the metro opened in 1969, Line 1 (also known as the ‘Pink Line’) included two stations that alluded to the Mexican Revolution and the revolution era. Most directly referencing the Revolution was the station ‘Pino Suárez’, named after Francisco I. Madero's vice president, who was murdered with him in February 1913. This was identified by a representation of the Ehecatl Aztec Pyramid.

The second was ‘Balderas’, whose icon s a cannon, alluding to the Ciudadela armoury where the coup against Madero was launched. In 1970, ‘Revolución’ opened, with the station at the Monument to the Revolution, which also formed the basis of the icon. As the Metro expanded, further stations with names from the revolutionary era opened.

The background colours of pink, blue and green reflected the line each station was part of, with those stations serving two or more lines shown in two colours, with the colours being split diagonally.

Versions of this graphical system was adopted for the Guadalajara and Monterrey Metros, and for the Mexico City Metrobús.

Although literacy in Mexico has vastly improved since the 1960s, and the need for a symbolic priority would no longer be necessary, the station icons, the distinctive ‘M’ logo and typeface remain in place, in use and expanded upon today.

Discover more Mexico City Metro brand assets and assets from hundreds other historical and contemporary brands at Brand Archive.

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